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My latest attempt at RobA's tute

Hi, I don't know if this is the best or right place for this, but here goes.
I've been practicing and can consistently follow the tute up to the start of Post 10, but I get lost from the point where I have to bring up the levels box and adjust the band of white on black. I'm hoping that some kind soul(s) out there might have the time and patience to help me through my latest stumbling block. This is where I can get to:

You need to merge this layer down onto the blurry one. Then go to color>invert to make the black line white. Then Color>Levels and play with the input sliders. Generally input starts at Black 0, Gamma 1.0 and White 255. In RobA's example he has slid the values to Black 174, Gamma 2.29 and White 194 if I recall correctly. For me the main thing to look out for is how much dirt layer you want to show on your coast. You could tweak it by painting the mask later or you can do it by playing with the levels to get the thickness you want. Give it a try and post your results.

This isn't the same map, but it's the standard of what I can manage in the tute now. I've been trying the simple mountain tute the last couple of days, but am stumped again. Will post my efforts late (gotta go pick up my 11 year old from dancing)

I'm back. The 3 Ws kept me occupied for a while (wife, weans and work). I've been trying the simple mountains tute for the last couple of days and this is what I can manage. Not perfect by a long chalk I know, but I'm happy to be improving (no matter how little or slow!). C and C welcome.

Thank yob RobA. I consider that praise from Caesar.
Here's my first (and only, so far) attempt at adding forests using the Textured Forests In Gimp. I know they don't look right, but I was happy just to make it through the tute without totally messing up.

Somehow I stalled at the Simple mountains. The more I tried, the worse I got. I tried K Davies' tute and am quite happy with the results, but I'd appreciate any c & c. (I'm still experimenting with sizes and colours

There seems to be alot of subtle horizontal and vertical lines that make the map look unnatural. I've never made a map of this type so I don't know what would fix it. Your mountains are looking good. Keep it up

Our sense of the stability of the earth is an illusion due to the shortness of our lives.
- Neil deGrasse Tyson